Vincent Ho readies for the Hong Kong season off another ‘Covid summer’
The start of the Hong Kong season is a week and a half away and Vincent Ho is re-engaging with the daily routines around Sha Tin as he looks forward to what he hopes will be another big campaign in tandem with Golden Sixty (Medaglia D’Oro).
Ho has been “back at work” for the past week, readying himself physically and mentally for the long grind through 88 race meetings across more than ten months, back and forth between the big track in the New Territories and its Island-side party night counterpart, Happy Valley.
The traditional post-racing ticker tape-fest at the season finale on July 14, 2019 feels a long two years and more past. On that day – like so many finales before but none since – the suitcases were already packed and airport transfers ready to roll as jockeys prepared to jet away immediately for their annual release at the end of another tough campaign: one which concluded amidst pro-democracy protests and the uncertainty of ongoing political upheaval.
Reel along to July 14 of this year and Hong Kong racing’s protagonists were, for the most part, resigned to a second consecutive hot, humid summer within the city’s confines, having been grounded by the global pandemic in 2020: five-star staycations, government Covid measures, mosquitoes and all.
For Ho, the past two ‘Covid summers’ have meant a forced break from his usual routine of mental reinvigoration and professional self-improvement. His several summer European ‘busman’s holidays’ have been key to his development as a top-class rider, initially in France, and more recently in Britain, based out of Mark Johnston’s stable at Middleham in the North Yorkshire dales.
The Hong Kong government currently requires inbound travellers from the UK and Australia to quarantine in a designated hotel upon arrival for 21 nights.
“These two seasons that I haven’t been able to go away, it’s not a waste of time because I can still get something from the summer, but being stuck here, it’s not the same, it feels like the Covid pandemic has slowed down my progress. All those summers I rode in Europe before, the different tracks and even enjoying the countryside, it was all great experience to improve my riding and horsemanship,” he observed.
“As a jockey, it’s great to be able to ride everywhere around the world and gain experience because in Hong Kong, we’re not like other jockeys around the world, we don’t race every day, we only have two tracks and I think that makes a difference.
“It’s still very competitive here, for sure, but it’s just not the same. I felt like every summer, riding different tracks, new horses, and with all the different jockeys who I don’t know, it would just open my mind a lot more and I learned a lot faster. It’s all experience.”
Ho’s realistic assessment is just that: it is not a complaint. Hong Kong’s jockeys have it good on many levels – lucrative race purses, very little raceday travel, trackwork mostly at a single site and plenty of downtime between the two race meetings per week – and the rider, like his peers, knows those perks well.
But against that they must deal with a myriad of tests, notably the unyielding intensity of piercing scrutiny, the pressure of performing on a circuit driven by massive turnover and governed by an omnipotent racing club whose influence pervades many aspects of a rider’s life, and then there is the daunting difficulty of trying to crack the iron block that is the Joao Moreira-Zac Purton duopoly.
Ho’s thoughtful, driven approach to his career development has enabled him to emerge as a top-four rider in Hong Kong and, during his years working and competing as an athlete within the pressure cooker, he has learned the importance of being able to step away, recharge and view things from a different vantage point whenever possible.
“You can’t even see Hong Kong on a (world) map and we have almost eight million people here. It’s just tough mentally. It’s physically non-stop working and it’s not easy. It’s good to have time away, which is good for my mental health,” he added.
Ho, 31, entered the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s system in his teens when he was accepted into the apprentice school and sent to New Zealand to hone the rudimentary elements of race-riding. Since stepping into the Hong Kong arena as Caspar Fownes’ apprentice back in 2009, he has developed – steadily and inconspicuously at first – into a talented jockey with a Group 1 curriculum vitae and a growing profile outside of his home city.
In early 2020 he guided Golden Sixty to win all three legs of the Classic Series; last season he partnered the star galloper to seven more wins, four at Group 1 level; on Champions Day in April, he not only landed the Champions Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) on Golden Sixty but also took the QEII Cup (Gr 1, 2000m) on the Japanese mare, Loves Only You (Deep Impact). He ended the campaign fourth in the premiership behind Moreira, Purton and Karis Teetan.
And yet, such is the tough nature of Hong Kong racing – the intense competition and fickleness of connections – that after pondering his hopes for this term, he said: “Every season starts and it’s a question mark, honestly. Early season there’s lots of uncertainty for myself but I’ll just aim to ride well, and finding good rides should be OK. I always just put my mind into it and keep working hard.”
Whereas some riders in years past have looked upon a solid effort across a season as a guaranteed springboard to better things the following campaign, Ho knows better. He takes nothing for granted.
Instances such as guiding the promising David Hayes-trained Naboo Attack (Warhead) to a first-up win, as he did last term, only to lose the ride to Purton, are normal occurrences for all riders outside the top two.
“I can’t say I’m used to it because you still have bad feelings whenever you’re taken off a horse but the game is like this in Hong Kong,” he explained.
“That’s one of the reasons that some top jockeys don’t want to come to Hong Kong anymore. Even Christophe Soumillon came and said all the good horses go to Zac and Joao and Karis. Even for him, a star jockey, one of the best jockeys in the world, he still said that when he came here. So, the environment is definitely not easy for anyone. But that’s been the culture here for a long time and it’s not something you can change in one day and I totally understand that.
“When I was a kid, my goal was to ride well enough that owners and trainers would see that and keep me on good horses. I’m not one of those guys who is good at the social side and I’m not good at managing my own rides. I need to improve this, while at the same time my goal is still to ride well and keep the rides. I have to work a lot harder to try to stay on good rides and also be able to gain the trust and show them that my ability is as good, so I need to keep improving and keep pushing.”
Ho has attempted this summer to continue his development as a jockey and a horseman by tapping into his show jumping roots. He also found a new pursuit that has helped him to refresh and refocus.
“I’ve been sailing,” he revealed. “I’ve been learning from some Hong Kong athletes, which is great. It’s a healthy sport and also, it’s about feelings. I think the way that they sail, mentally, they’re dealing with nature, which is quite similar to us as jockeys in some ways. We are riding an animal, with its own brain, and they’re on a boat working with nature. They rely on feelings as well, so it’s related to riding in a way but it’s also completely different.”
As for Golden Sixty, the champion gelding’s trainer Francis Lui confirmed to Asia Bloodstock News that the plan is to “go to the Group race first-up in November,” the Jockey Club Mile (Gr 2, 1600m), as the sole lead-up into December’s Hong Kong International Races, rather than carry topweight in a Group race handicap prior to that, which would be the conventional approach.
“My personal preference is that I don’t want him to carry topweight either,” Ho said. “I think for him it’s also better not to run too many races in one season: if you compare to Europe, I don’t think many top horses are running as many times as Hong Kong horses.”
Part of the thinking is connected to the desire to test the 17-time winner away from Sha Tin for the first time, with the Yasuda Kinen (Gr 1, 1600m) in Japan next June being mooted as the prime possibility. A victory there would provide a boost to Hong Kong racing’s profile after the connections of its most recent champions Beauty Generation (Road To Rock) and Exultant (Teofilo) opted not to prove their merits in a foreign arena.
“We hope to go overseas and the owner for sure wants to do that, and he loves Japan, so he’s quite keen to go there but we’ll see what our options are,” Ho added.
If that Japan raid does come to pass, one might assume that Covid measures will have softened and if that is so, the suitcases will again be packed ready for a rapid, mass summer getaway from Sha Tin after the last race on July 16, 2022.